


Kate and Harry

by Hotspur



Category: Henry IV Part 1 - Shakespeare
Genre: Crying, Drabbles, F/M, Hair Washing, Holding Hands, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Dancing, Tumblr Prompts, leaving for battle, or trying to anyway, rhe world needs more katespur
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-23 19:44:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6128056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hotspur/pseuds/Hotspur
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some drabbles about Hotspur and Kate.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Hands

**Author's Note:**

> As requested by Kitkatullus on tumblr, some stories about Hotspur and Kate.
> 
> Chapter one prompt: Holding each other's hand.

Harry hates official functions. He hates going into the court, he hates parties and meetings with the king. He hates the crowded hall, full of people making idle chat. Such is tonight, a feast held by King Henry, and he wants out. He can feel the anger rising.

Then it subsides, like the tide calming suddenly. She wasn’t there before, but now Kate is next to him, her hand in his. She’s slipped her fingers in between his and she gently rubs his knuckles with her thumb. The soft touch calms him down exponentially. Harry looks down at their entwined hands- his long fingers, calloused from sword and reins, woven in with the soft fingers of his lady. He smiles. Maybe tonight won’t be so bad after all.


	2. Hair

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: One washing the other’s hair.

“I don’t know how you manage it,” Kate mumbled, rolling up her sleeves.

“I fell in a bush,” Harry replied. “Sorry, I was trying to survive the battle.” He sank deeper into the hot water of the bathtub. It felt so good for his aching muscles.

“Oh Harry…” Kate sighed and squeezed some shampoo onto her hand. She reached over and rubbed if into his short-cropped hair, which right now was the color of mud. After a few rinses and applications of shampoo, Harry’s hair was back to its usual color, so blond it was white.

Harry smiled contentedly as Kate massaged his scalp and made his hair smell great. Soon his hair would be dry and fluffy, no longer muddled with dirt, blood, and twigs.

“Thanks, Kate,” he said, toweling off after the bath. “You don’t have to do that, you know.”

Kate shrugged. “I love you,” she said simply. She reached up and put a hand on the back of his head, burying her fingers in the short down. Harry took the invitation and joined her for a kiss, his fingers tracing her long, dark braid.

He pulled away with a smile. “Your turn, love!”


	3. Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Reading together.

Harry has trouble paying attention. His mind is always working, always moving, jumping from one thought to the next. He especially has trouble sitting still and focusing on words on a page.

So for a long time he pretended he didn’t like books, that he thought they were a waste of time for a man like him. However, that wasn’t true and he loved books and the stories they held. He just didn’t like that he couldn’t force himself to read.

So now he has a way to read, and that way is Kate. Every night before they go to bed she has him rest his overactive head in her lap, offering him her free hand to hold and fidget with as she reads to him. Sometimes he is lulled to sleep by her voice, sometimes he gets excited and sits up, clinging to her shoulder as the story gets to the good part.

“Who’d think a grown man would have someone read him a bedtime story?” Harry mumbles. He loves it, but hopes no one hears of it.

Kate just kisses his forehead, leaving the book on the nightstand and getting under the covers. “Goodnight, my hero.”


	4. Tears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: One reacting to the other crying.

“Just come home safe, alright?” Kate begged. Harry was leaving for a fight, the first one since they’d been married a few months before.

“I’ll be fine,” Harry said, patting her shoulder. “It’s just a skirmish, I’ll be home for supper.”

Kate was only semi-conscious of the tears running down her cheeks. She had been falling in love with her husband in the past few months. Only now she realized it.

“Kate,” Harry began, putting his big hands on her shoulders, “what’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to see you go,” Kate mumbled.

“Then go back inside,” he said, not understanding what she meant. He also didn’t understand why she was crying.

“Oh Harry!” Kate embraced him, pressing her face into his shoulder. “Harry, I love you.”

“You love me?” Harry echoed, understanding even less. This lady loving him had never entered his mind. Kate kept crying on his shoulder. He carefully stroked her braided hair, not knowing how to get her to stop crying.

“Yes, Harry, I love you, I love you…” Kate pulled back to look at him, her cheeks glowing with tears.

Harry didn’t know how to respond, so he reached out and wiped the tears from her round, admittedly pretty face. “I’ll be back for supper,” he said. “Don’t you cry, Kate, I’ll be back.” He wiped another stray tear and realized that seeing her crying hurt him. He didn’t want her to cry- maybe he liked hearing that she loved him.

He loved her too.


	5. Dances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: Slow dancing.

"You have to learn this!" Kate snapped, trying to avoid getting stepped on. "There's no hiding from it, Harry." 

"I have lived all my life without knowing how to dance," Harry replied, tripping over himself, "and I won't learn now. Least of all for Glendower."

"Be thankful he likes you," Kate growled. "You still have to go to the party. Come on, right foot, then left foot!" Harry took a step, and Kate yelped. "Not MY right foot!" 

Harry gripped her hand too tightly and his other hand heavy on her waist. They'd been trying for an hour, unsuccessfully, to get Harry to be able to dance a few steps without serious injury.

"Think of it in the steps of a duel," Kate suggested. 

Three minutes later both of them were on the floor with new bruises and a throbbing pain in Harry's little finger.

"Maybe I'm not meant to slow dance," Harry mumbled. Kate agreed.


End file.
